Table 1.

Overview of murine nematode infection models applied in the context of IBD

Organism	Model relevance	Location of infection	Th2-inducing capacity	Infection persistence
Heligmosomoides polygyrus	Chonic human intestinal nematode infections	Proximal small intestine, transiently tissue penetrating (L4), adults reside in lumen	++, highly polarized	Chronic infection in most mouse strains for weeks/months
Trichuris muris	Human whipworm infections	Caecum and upper colon, intraepithelial with distal end in lumen	+/++, strongly dependent on mouse strain	Depends on infective dose and mouse strain, mostly expelled within 3 weeks
Trichinella spiralis	Infective to broad spectrum of mammals	Intraepithelial in small intestine, newborn infective larvae migrate into muscle tissue	++	Rodents expel adults within 2 weeks; long survival of infective L3 in muscle tissue